


The Passenger

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 084, Canon friendly, Eye Spy, F/M, Flirting, Gen, Lola - Freeform, Me Time, Seeds, Skye crushing on Coulson, The Bus, Unresolved Sexual Tension, nothing personal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 15:51:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2156337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet in which Skye draws parallels between Coulson and modes of transportation.  Pretty canon friendly, but, ya know.</p><p>Title taken from the Iggy Pop song of the same name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Passenger

She knows she can be very silly and quite the flirt.

It's just an easy way to make a joke of things when they get difficult or when she wants out of a situation.

They call that an "extraction" around here.

And people will volunteer a lot of information if you seem harmless, or helpful.

She's more used to appearing harmless, though.

Even though she doesn't think she is and lots of people have underestimated her.

It's given her an enormous amount of personal satisfaction to see their lies and secrets exposed over the airwaves since she started making this a mission and joined the Rising Tide.

What's she's not used to, is someone giving it back to her.

I mean, people try, but they're usually not very good at it, and she just wants to roll her eyes and get to the point.

 _He's_ good.

She likes how she can see what he's thinking in back of what he says. The way he uses words and humor to get people to give up a lot more than they might otherwise. It's definitely better than the shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach that she had pegged SHIELD for.

He also says a lot more than he lets on.

When she asks him about Reyes, she's not really asking him about Reyes. I mean, obviously, Coulson and Reyes...yeah. What she's asking is if he's not quite as straight-laced as his tailored, expensive suits and cool demeanor might imply.

And then there's his thing with the car. She made an offhand remark at him about it when they dropped off Ace with Mike's Aunt.

He'd shot back, "Lola can keep up."

Turns out, Lola was a flying car and not just a really old car. But now she's watching him buff at her and wondering if there's not some kind of connection there.

What else is he hiding under the hood?

He pauses for a moment to stare up at her after the Reyes question and stares her down, his eyebrows raised. There's a smile there, though, she's pretty sure. Kind of this smirking expression, like he knows he's being tested.

"That's classified."

As he walks away from her, she can't help but laugh.

Coulson might just be able to keep up, too.

****  
  
The man is full of surprises.

She really doubted Amador would get a second chance when this whole thing started.

But, she was definitely down with him giving someone that had been controlled and misused a second chance.

Obviously, this was not 'the thing' to do at SHIELD, though, gauging Ward and May's reactions.

Starting with him not calling in backup when he could have.

Backup might've come in handy when Amador rammed the van, with them in it. A few bumps and bruises were worth how the whole thing had turned out.

Being able to sleep at night.

She'd never thought about taking something so simple for granted. Of course, she had been living in a van, on bum-watch.

Nevertheless, that was nothing like what Akela had endured.

"It's also... _cool_ , knowing that someone has my back. No matter what," she said, looking over at him.

"This feels good," he said, stretching out more, as though testing it out, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling of the SUV.

Wouldn't be good to get caught gawking at the boss.

He's not what she expected at all.

When she had teased him about being his protegee earlier, then tried to quickly take it back, he hadn't denied it. He just told her how Amador was different from her and how he had pushed her too hard.

It was just the two of them standing there and he was sharing things with her that weren't particularly relevant to the mission, but that were intensely personal to him.

She wanted to know if that's how he defined their relationship.

Now she was wondering if she'd missed something.

He'd asked her to help out, but just with _what_ exactly?

An exploit was one thing.

Shouldn't he be doing this with May or possibly anyone else?

Or was it because he knew they wouldn't understand? That it was just about the mission.

This side of him feels soft and warm. Cozy. Like her van.

Somewhere a SHIELD human resources manual just probably burst into flame from him getting into the back of a parked SUV with her past 10 pm.

Does he even realize what he's doing?

How he looks when he smiles?

Like he's doing now.

****

She can't think about anything.

Her mind won't let her.

It's been overwhelmed. Swallowed up in death and lies.

The past has finally caught up with her, after being held back for so long.

And it _is_ worse than she imagined.

There are things happening, forces bigger than any they've dealt with, just outside the plane.

She can hear the storm, roaring.

And instead of jumping in to face it with the rest of the team, she can barely move.

She feels numb.

Why now? Why couldn't he wait until they were someplace quiet and safe? When she would have time to process this.

Right now she is _useless_.

His hand slides over hers and she feels him squeeze her tightly.

He's holding onto her, riding out the storm with her.

Even when she couldn't feel him a moment ago, he was still there.

And the storm is still outside, raging to get in.

They touch down inside the heart of it and she remembers then that she's been sheltered.

By SHIELD.

One final squeeze and he turns and looks at her, with an expression pained and full of guilt.

He lets himself out of the jump seat, tells her to stay, heads off towards the outside.

She has spent her whole life searching for answers.

And she found one.

****

Lola is a wreck, but, they made it.

Now that she considers it, he looks a wreck, too.

There's too much adrenalyne in her right now. She can barely breathe.

But there's still enough left in her to look at him and wonder.

This could've gone a different way. If she had just let Deathlok kill Ward...

She doesn't think she's seen this side of him before, and she's seen a lot of him.

If she tried to stand now, her knees might give out.

She just tips her head back and tries to catch her breath as a guy approaches from the side.

He wants money and Coulson is actually going for his wallet and trying to figure things out.

She watches him stagger out of his side of Lola and head around the curb.

It occurs to her that maybe she's supposed to get out of Lola, too.

His hand is on the handle of her door, shaking and he pulls it open, too hard and it swings back.

Must be the rush of falling 15,000 feet.

Falling.

Too late for that.

He holds his hand out and she takes it as he pulls her out of Lola and her ears are buzzing and she can feel his chest rising and falling beneath her hands.

His arm swings around her shoulders, the brief look in his eyes making it clear he knows he's in danger.

Of finally losing control.

Instead he turns, and they walk together, holding each other up, towards the safety of the doors.

"What about Lola?" Skye asks, looking back briefly. The tires are shot and bullet holes riddle the windshield.

Lola saved their lives. Saved her.

From Ward.

"I appreciate your concern," he says, trying to laugh, squeezing her arm.

"I could use a drink. What do you say?"


End file.
